Lance gears up for The Argus
6 February 2010, 11:18
Lance Armstrong will not be the first Tour de France champion to ride in the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour, but he will be the only one who will ride the world's biggest race in the same year as he rides the world's biggest timed race.
Eddy Merckx, Laurent Fignon, Jan Ullrich, Miguel Indurain and Greg LeMond have spun their long-since retired legs at the Cycle Tour.
Though vastly respected, none of them has changed the world of cycling in quite as dramatic a manner as Armstrong has.
Merckx may be the greatest cyclist of all time, but Armstrong has transcended cycling and become a sporting icon, a figure to rival Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.
There are few who do not know his story; millions bought his first autobiography It's not about the bike.
Abandoned by his father, the product of a strong, single mother, cycling world champion at the age of 22, two-time Tour de France stage winner before he had turned 25, Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer on October 2, 1996.
The cancer had spread through his body and he was given less than 40 percent chance of living. Yet, he did, and with the heavy muscle of a sprinter stripped from him during his illness, he returned to win the Tour de France, the hardest race in the world - seven times.
In August last year, Procycling, the British cycling magazine, drew up a list of the 50 most influential people in cycling: Armstrong was number one on that list, the only active and competing rider in the top 10.
"There could really be only one person at number one," wrote Procycling.
"Lance Armstrong successfully bridges that divide between the sportsman and the politician... although he divides opinion, few could disagree with the power that Armstrong wields.
"As a rider, he dominated the Tour de France, but his influence stretched across the sport as a whole. He brought thousands of new fans to cycling - millions even. In retirement he dated movie stars and worked even harder on his LiveStrong foundation."
When the rumours of his return began to flash across cyberspace, there was a tangible frisson in the world of cycling.
He'd retired at the top, standing on the winner's podium of the 2005 Tour de France and his absence had left a hole in cycling that the sport struggled to fill.
There were young riders with the talent and physical attributes to ride as well as he had done, but they lacked the aura of Armstrong.
Loved and hated, respected and suspected, Armstrong was the patron of the peloton, the leader of the pack.
Standing on the podium on the Champs Elysees, staring down his critics, those who continued to suspect him of somehow managing to dope despite being the most tested rider this century, Armstrong challenged the world to believe in him, in cycling and the Tour de France.
Armstrong changed the way professional cyclists approached their sport, his brash Texan style jarring with European traditions. He single-mindedly targeted the Tour de France, recruiting riders to his US Postal team who would work solely for one purpose - to help him win overall.
His wins were planned and calculated to the finest detail by Johan Bruyneel, the former Belgian rider who had become his team manager.
The margin of his victories were frighteningly consistent: in 1999 he beat Alex Zulle by seven minutes, in 2000 he beat Jan Ullrich, his great rival, by six minutes and two seconds, in 2001, Ullrich finished 6min 44sec back and in 2002, with Ullrich suspended, he beat Joseba Beloki by seven minutes.
He showed weakness just once, when he went into the 2003 Tour a little undercooked and famously fell on the Luz Ardiden.
Ullrich was but a few seconds back, but then the German fell on the final time trial and Armstrong won by one minute and one second.
A return to form in 2004 saw him beat Andreas Kloden by 6min 19sec and in 2005 he held off the challenge of Ivan Basso, winning by 4min 40sec.
Fiercely loyal to those who supported him, Armstrong could be brutal with those who crossed him.
It was almost as though he needed an enemy to rail against, someone to push his buttons and thus push him harder.
Press conferences became sparring sessions and there were those in the media who became referred to as the "trolls". David Walsh, of the London Sunday Times, co-wrote two books in which he used circumstantial evidence to accuse Armstrong of doping.
A team of lawyers swung into action and stopped publication of the book and sued the Sunday Times.
L'Equipe, the French sports daily, pursued him relentlessly, claiming that retroactive testing on a 1999 blood sample showed that Armstrong had used EPO. That, too, was brushed aside.
When he retired, Jean-Marie Le Blanc, the Tour de France race director, said his reign of the race had been a bad time for cycling.
Christian Prudhomme, who took over from Le Blanc, welcomed Armstrong back with open arms last year as he returned to the tour with Astana.
He finished third, but is desperate for one more win in the greatest cycling race of them all. He got the American electronics retailer Radioshack on board to sponsor his team, recruited some old mates and young stars, and became a favourite to win the 2010 Tour.
It was a different Armstrong, more open and charming, although his personal battle with team-mate Alberto Contador at the 2009 Tour showed that he had lost little of the spirit for the fight.
Fans, some 2.5-million of them, followed his life through the medium of Twitter, the social media network, and it was there that he announced he would be riding in the Cycle Tour on March 14. It is possibly the biggest news in the race's history, agreed Dave Bellairs, the Cycle Tour co-director.
If entries weren't already sold out and limited by logistics, they could get another 35,000 to ride on the strength on Armstrong being on the same road as them.
"There's no denying that in his absence, the sport had started to lose cash and media exposure," wrote Procycling.
"But now that the fan base he established prior to his 2005 retirement is backing him once more, it's clear that the secret X ingredient that had been missing in those intervening years has returned too. That can't be a coincidence.
"Simply, Armstrong is mainstream cycling."
Eddy Merckx, Laurent Fignon, Jan Ullrich, Miguel Indurain and Greg LeMond have spun their long-since retired legs at the Cycle Tour.
Though vastly respected, none of them has changed the world of cycling in quite as dramatic a manner as Armstrong has.
Merckx may be the greatest cyclist of all time, but Armstrong has transcended cycling and become a sporting icon, a figure to rival Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.
There are few who do not know his story; millions bought his first autobiography It's not about the bike.
Abandoned by his father, the product of a strong, single mother, cycling world champion at the age of 22, two-time Tour de France stage winner before he had turned 25, Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer on October 2, 1996.
The cancer had spread through his body and he was given less than 40 percent chance of living. Yet, he did, and with the heavy muscle of a sprinter stripped from him during his illness, he returned to win the Tour de France, the hardest race in the world - seven times.
In August last year, Procycling, the British cycling magazine, drew up a list of the 50 most influential people in cycling: Armstrong was number one on that list, the only active and competing rider in the top 10.
"There could really be only one person at number one," wrote Procycling.
"Lance Armstrong successfully bridges that divide between the sportsman and the politician... although he divides opinion, few could disagree with the power that Armstrong wields.
"As a rider, he dominated the Tour de France, but his influence stretched across the sport as a whole. He brought thousands of new fans to cycling - millions even. In retirement he dated movie stars and worked even harder on his LiveStrong foundation."
When the rumours of his return began to flash across cyberspace, there was a tangible frisson in the world of cycling.
He'd retired at the top, standing on the winner's podium of the 2005 Tour de France and his absence had left a hole in cycling that the sport struggled to fill.
There were young riders with the talent and physical attributes to ride as well as he had done, but they lacked the aura of Armstrong.
Loved and hated, respected and suspected, Armstrong was the patron of the peloton, the leader of the pack.
Standing on the podium on the Champs Elysees, staring down his critics, those who continued to suspect him of somehow managing to dope despite being the most tested rider this century, Armstrong challenged the world to believe in him, in cycling and the Tour de France.
Armstrong changed the way professional cyclists approached their sport, his brash Texan style jarring with European traditions. He single-mindedly targeted the Tour de France, recruiting riders to his US Postal team who would work solely for one purpose - to help him win overall.
His wins were planned and calculated to the finest detail by Johan Bruyneel, the former Belgian rider who had become his team manager.
The margin of his victories were frighteningly consistent: in 1999 he beat Alex Zulle by seven minutes, in 2000 he beat Jan Ullrich, his great rival, by six minutes and two seconds, in 2001, Ullrich finished 6min 44sec back and in 2002, with Ullrich suspended, he beat Joseba Beloki by seven minutes.
He showed weakness just once, when he went into the 2003 Tour a little undercooked and famously fell on the Luz Ardiden.
Ullrich was but a few seconds back, but then the German fell on the final time trial and Armstrong won by one minute and one second.
A return to form in 2004 saw him beat Andreas Kloden by 6min 19sec and in 2005 he held off the challenge of Ivan Basso, winning by 4min 40sec.
Fiercely loyal to those who supported him, Armstrong could be brutal with those who crossed him.
It was almost as though he needed an enemy to rail against, someone to push his buttons and thus push him harder.
Press conferences became sparring sessions and there were those in the media who became referred to as the "trolls". David Walsh, of the London Sunday Times, co-wrote two books in which he used circumstantial evidence to accuse Armstrong of doping.
A team of lawyers swung into action and stopped publication of the book and sued the Sunday Times.
L'Equipe, the French sports daily, pursued him relentlessly, claiming that retroactive testing on a 1999 blood sample showed that Armstrong had used EPO. That, too, was brushed aside.
When he retired, Jean-Marie Le Blanc, the Tour de France race director, said his reign of the race had been a bad time for cycling.
Christian Prudhomme, who took over from Le Blanc, welcomed Armstrong back with open arms last year as he returned to the tour with Astana.
He finished third, but is desperate for one more win in the greatest cycling race of them all. He got the American electronics retailer Radioshack on board to sponsor his team, recruited some old mates and young stars, and became a favourite to win the 2010 Tour.
It was a different Armstrong, more open and charming, although his personal battle with team-mate Alberto Contador at the 2009 Tour showed that he had lost little of the spirit for the fight.
Fans, some 2.5-million of them, followed his life through the medium of Twitter, the social media network, and it was there that he announced he would be riding in the Cycle Tour on March 14. It is possibly the biggest news in the race's history, agreed Dave Bellairs, the Cycle Tour co-director.
If entries weren't already sold out and limited by logistics, they could get another 35,000 to ride on the strength on Armstrong being on the same road as them.
"There's no denying that in his absence, the sport had started to lose cash and media exposure," wrote Procycling.
"But now that the fan base he established prior to his 2005 retirement is backing him once more, it's clear that the secret X ingredient that had been missing in those intervening years has returned too. That can't be a coincidence.
"Simply, Armstrong is mainstream cycling."
- This article was originally published on page 27 of The Cape Argus on February 06, 2010
Pretoria
